Tag: tart
Cranberry Curd Tart (All the Colors of the Pie)

Cranberry Curd Tart (All the Colors of the Pie)

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The Perfect Potluck Event

Before going full force into Christmas mode, a recap of Thanksgiving is due.  Turkey Day was spent at my brother’s house in The City with aunties, uncles, cousins, and friends.  Potluck style, the spread is a mash-up of classic Thanksgiving dishes and Chinese dishes adapted for the holiday.

Our table would not be complete without sweet rice stuffing – Gnaw Mai Fan and Cousin Gary’s Sweet Potatoes (yep the classic copious amounts of butter and brown sugar, topped with mini-marshmallows). Our contribution to the annual feast was PIES and for forty-plus people.  That’s a whole lotta pie. Lucky for me Jamie was home. Yay.  Reinforcements.

It’s Pie Time

Have you ever noticed, Thanksgiving dinner is texturally (besides the turkey) a toothless delight-stuffing, yams, corn casserole, carrot pudding, overcooked green bean casserole…you know what I’m talking about.  The traditional desserts are a plethora of orangey-brown tones-pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie, and pecan pie. The only reprieve is a dollop of whipped cream on every slice.  Kinda monochromatic.

Well, we fixed that this year.  Not the soft foods just the dessert color palette problem.  We still made Pecan Pie and Pumpkin Pie but we then finished with a color flurry-Purple Sweet Potato Pie, Apple Tart (don’t peel your apples), and a Cranberry Curd Tart.  Splash!

For the Cranberry Curd Tart, two recipes stood out (ok, they were the first two after Googling).  David Tanis’s recipe in the New York Times and the Cranberry Curd Tart from the blog Blossom to Stem.  A flip of the coin, Blossom to Stem won.  It is a beautiful blog, craft cocktails, and delicious food, check it out.

Let’s Talk Crust, Crust, Baby

The crust, all butter, flour, powdered sugar, egg yolk, and orange zest.  The powdered sugar makes a tender crust by lowering the protein content of the dough.  Melted butter means no waiting for the butter to soften.  I am a believer in using melted butter for crusts.  I learned this from making Alice Medrich’s BOSS Lemon bar recipe.  Bake it until a nice golden brown. The finished crust is sweet, citrusy, and tender.  Love it.

The curd starts with cooking the cranberries in orange juice until they burst then passing the mixture through a food mill to remove the seeds and skin.  Don’t have a food mill? Make the curd and strain it. A little more elbow grease (ok, more than a little) without a food mill but doable.

Voila, a gorgeous ruby red cranberry curd-sweet, tart, and delicious.

The curd will thicken as it cools so make sure the crust is baked before finishing the curd. Quickly pour the curd into the crust and slide it into the oven for 10 minutes.  Remove and cool the tart at room temp for an hour and then into the fridge it goes to set.

Garnish with pomegranate seeds or candied cranberries and serve with a ubiquitous dollop of whipped cream or if you like, a meringue (nope, not me).

Make this tart and bedazzle your family and friends this holiday season.

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Cranberry Curd Tart

Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword cranberry curd tart
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Additional time to prep curd and bake 25 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Servings 8 Servings

Ingredients

For the crust

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter 1 stick
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • zest of one orange

For the cranberry curd

  • 12 ounces cranberries fresh or frozen
  • juice of one orange Approximately 1/2 cup
  • 1 1/4 cups sugar
  • 2 whole eggs
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter 1 stick
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon orange liqueur such as Grand Marnier (optional)

Instructions

Make the crust

  • Preheat oven to 350°F. Add the flour, powdered sugar, and salt to a small bowl and whisk together. Melt the butter in a small saucepan (or in the microwave), add the vanilla extract and orange zest to the butter and stir, then pour into the dry ingredients and stir together until thoroughly moistened.
  • Press the dough evenly along the bottom and sides into a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Place the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake until the crust is golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Make the cranberry curd

  • Heat the cranberries and orange juice in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat until the cranberries split. Strain through a food mill or fine mesh sieve and discard the skins.
  • Return the strained cranberry mixture to the saucepan and add the sugar, eggs, egg yolks, butter, vanilla, and orange liqueur (if using) to the pan and give everything a good stir. Heat gently over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and registers 170°F on an instant read thermometer (about 8-9 minutes). Immediately strain through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl and pour into the prepared crust. Bake (still at 350°F) until the curd is set (it should jiggle but not slosh), about 10 minutes.
  • Let cool at room temperature for about 1 hour, then transfer to the refrigerator to chill. Serve this chilled or at room temperature.
  • Serve with softly whipped cream
Pecan Tartlets-The Perfect Little Nutty Bite

Pecan Tartlets-The Perfect Little Nutty Bite

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We were invited to Rosh Hashanah dinner the other night and I volunteered to bring dessert.  It’s usually a no brainer since our host LOVES Lemon Bars.  But then I remembered I had promised to post Mrs. S’s Pecan Tartlet recipe.  The Lemon Bars would have to wait for another occasion.

Mrs. S, for all of you that have not read my Toffee Bars post (hint, hint), is my baking muse and mom of my BFF, Joy.  Every Christmas, since I met Joy in middle school, I have been the lucky recipient of a plate of Mrs. S’s holiday cookies.  They were delicious and beautiful.  She was meticulous and something of a control freak (I can SO relate) so she would shoo us out of the kitchen when she started her holiday baking.  Occasionally she would let us help with just the finishing touches, placing the pecan halves in her chocolate thumbprints or rolling her meltingly tender almond crescents in powdered sugar.  But mixing the cookie dough itself, nope, that was her domain.

My Favorites

Her Toffee Bars and Pecan Tartlets.  When I became interested in cooking and baking and not just eating, I asked for her cookie recipes and she was gracious enough to share them with me.  For Mrs. S making these cookies became second nature.  Details and how-to’s were committed to memory, not to paper.  Over the years I have figured out the little extra steps she took that elevated her cookies, especially her Pecan Tartlets, above the rest.  I’ve also added my tweaks to make the process easier and faster.

How-Tos:

The tart crust is butter and cream cheese-based and similar to a cookie dough.  It does not include any liquids so it won’t shrink much.  I make the dough in a food processor, much like tart dough.  The dry ingredients are placed in the food processor bowl and pulsed a couple of times to combine.  The original recipe includes up to half a cup of sugar in the dough, way too much.  I often don’t add any sugar but if you like a sweeter crust, add a MAX of 1/4 cup.  Note that the more sugar you add, the quicker you will need to roll out the dough as the sugar makes the dough stickier and tougher to work with.  Add the butter and cream cheese and pulse until the dough just starts to clump.  Do not overprocess.  Gather the dough and chill for approximately 2 hours. 

You could scoop out dough, roll it into balls and press each into tiny muffin tins which is pretty easy, but then you wouldn’t get those cute scalloped edges.  Mrs. S’s method was to roll the dough out approximately 3/16 inch thick and cut it with a flower petal cookie cutter.  I know, lots of work but, look at how nice they look.  The genius of using the petal cutter is the shape makes it very easy to press the dough into the muffin tins.

Next Step:

Make the filling while the dough chills in the fridge.  Here’s the cheat.  Pour the filling into a squeeze bottle.  I replace the top with the lid from the honey I buy at TJ’s.  The spout is bigger which allows the filling to flow easily…a nice squirt into each muffin cup.  How EASY is that?  Ingenuity being the mother of invention, my cheapie wine opener works perfectly for pressing the dough evenly into the muffin tin.

Fill the tarts to where the petals meet and sprinkle the pecans on top.  Walnuts or a mix of different nuts would be delicious too.  Follow the baking instructions.  When slightly cooled, dust the tarts with a nice layer of powdered sugar.

Enjoy these little bites of bliss.  Don’t wait until the holidays to make them!

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MINIATURE PECAN TARTS

Bite-sized pecan tarts, sweet, nutty and delicious!
Course cookies, Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword cookies, holiday baking, Mini Pecan Tarts, pecans
Prep Time 45 minutes
35 minutes

Equipment

  • mini-muffin tin
  • 2 inch petal cookie cutter optional

Ingredients

Cream Cheese pastry

    Mix together:

    • 3 ounce cream cheese
    • 1 stick butter salted, or if using unsalted add 1/4 tsp salt
    • 1 cup all-purpose flour  preferably Gold Medal but any will work

    Filling

      Blend together:

      • 1 tablespoon softened butter
      • 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar light brown sugar
      • 1 egg large
      • 1 teaspoon vanilla
      • 1 cup chopped pecans substitute mixed nuts if you like, walnuts

      Instructions

      Dough

      • Original instructions: Combine well and refrigerate. Cut into small circles and press into mini-muffin tin.
      • My instructions: Mix the dough in a food processor. Place flour in fp bowl. Add butter and cream cheese to flour. Pulse mixture just until it begins to clump. Do not overprocess. Pour onto wax paper or plastic wrap and pat into a disc shape. Chill for at least 2 hours.
      • On a lightly floured surface, roll pastry out to 3/16-1/4 inch thickness. Cut into small circles. I use a petal cutter 2.5-inch or a plain round 2-inch cutter. Press circles into ungreased muffin tins. Chill muffin tins while making the filling.

      Filling

      • Blend filling ingredients well. Pour into a squeeze bottle. I use a plastic TJ honey container that has an opening about 1/8inch. This is a quick way to fill the muffin tins. You could use a spoon.
      • Fill prepared muffin tins about 3/4 full.  Allow filling to settle slightly.  Fill each muffin tin to the top with finely chopped pecans (about 1 cup)  Chill.
      • Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.  Reduce temperature to 250 degrees and bake 20 minutes longer. Allow tarts to cool and carefully remove from tins.
      • Sprinkle lightly with powdered sugar while still warm.  Allow to cool before removing from tins.

      Notes

      There aren't instructions for the prepared muffin tins.  I'm guessing at lightly greased.  I generally don't grease the tins and occasionally I lose a tartlet to sticking but for the most part a little pry with a thin bladed knife and the tarts come out of the pan.